CancerVax Announces Promising New Drug to Treat a Deadly Children’s Cancer
April 16 2024 - 3:01AM
CancerVax, Inc., the developer of breakthrough cancer drugs that
will use the body’s immune system to fight cancer, today announced
that its UCLA research team has created a promising new drug
candidate for treating recurrent Ewing sarcoma, a deadly children’s
cancer.
Ewing sarcoma is a rare and deadly bone and soft tissue cancer
that primarily affects children and young adults. There are
currently no treatment options for recurrent Ewing sarcoma, which
has a near 100% death rate.
The research program, funded by CancerVax, is led by a world
class team of cancer researchers and oncologists who run the Ewing
Sarcoma Program at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The principal investigators include Dr. Satiro De Oliveira, Dr.
Noah Federman, and Dr. Steven Jonas.
After nearly 3 years of ups and downs, which are typical to
biotech development programs, the passion and commitment of Dr. De
Oliveira and the other team members have resulted in a promising
“bispecific antibody vaccine” created specifically to treat Ewing
sarcoma. This treatment vaccine can target and attach to Ewing
sarcoma cancer cells, and attract the body’s natural killer
T-cells (immune system cells) to the tumor for destruction; hence
the “bispecific” descriptor. In extensive laboratory cell studies,
several candidates exhibited meaningful T-cell killing of Ewing
sarcoma cells, which meant the vaccine was doing its job of
bringing T-cells to the tumor cells for destruction.
Based on the positive data, Dr. Noah Federman, co-principal
investigator and Director of the Pediatric Bone and Soft Tissue
Sarcoma Program at UCLA, has recommended that CancerVax proceed
with IND enabling studies for preparing an application to the FDA
for human clinical trials. An IND (Investigational New Drug)
application includes toxicity experiments, manufacturing
information, and clinical protocols. More information about this
process can be found on the FDA website:
https://fda.gov/drugs/types-applications/investigational-new-drug-ind-application
CancerVax CEO, Byron Elton, said, “Cancer vaccines, also known
as cancer immunotherapies, are the latest weapons in the war
against cancer. This new type of cancer drug uses the body’s own
immune system to fight cancer. We believe this is a better way to
treat cancer rather than the old methods of chemotherapy,
radiation, and surgery. We have been in research mode for nearly 3
years and the creation of our first cancer drug candidate
represents a major milestone which marks the turning point where we
have become a viable biotech company. If we are successful with our
Ewing sarcoma vaccine, we will help save many children from this
deadly disease. If we are successful with our more comprehensive
Universal Cancer Vaccine project at UCLA, then we will help save
people of all ages from many types of cancers.”
About Us
CancerVax, Inc. is a pre-clinical biotechnology company
developing breakthrough cancer drugs that will use the body’s
immune system to fight cancer. Working with a team of world class
cancer researchers and oncologists at UCLA, we intend to create a
Universal Cancer Vaccine that will detect, mark, and destroy only
the diseased cells exclusively. By inducing cancer cells to express
a distinct marker absent in healthy cells, custom antibody drugs
and the body's immune cells can precisely target and eradicate
cancer cells. Also working with UCLA, we have created our first
cancer drug candidate – a single-disease specific immunotherapy
targeting Ewing sarcoma, a rare but deadly bone and soft tissue
cancer primarily affecting children and young adults. Based on the
positive data, we plan to launch FDA IND enabling studies needed to
apply for approval to proceed with human trials. We look forward to
the day when treating cancer will be as simple as getting a flu
shot – a better way to treat cancer. To learn more, please visit
www.CancerVax.com
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Press Contact: CancerVax, Inc. Tel: (805) 356-1810
communications@CancerVax.com